Don't just do something...sit there.

     The Supreme Court has declined to hear the lawsuit filed by Texas in the matter of the recent presidential election. For all intents and purposes, this means that the legal controversy over the election is over, and Joe Biden will be inaugurated as our 46th President on 20 January 2021. 

    I recognise that there is a microscopically small chance that something could happen when the Electoral College meets on Monday, or when the Congress meets on 6 January (!Theophany!) to ratify the Electoral College's vote. But let's assume, for purposes of this post, that nothing happens then.

    Partisans on both sides of the issue are clamouring for further action. 

    Some who supported President Trump are holding on to those microscopically small chances. Within that group, some Christians speak of a divine intervention to produce a second Trump term. (Are there stirrings in the soil around Simon Bar Kochba's grave?) Other Trump supporters want to have protest marches, or perhaps even darker responses.

    On the Biden side, some are seeking reprisals against the congressmen who joined Texas' lawsuit as amicus curiae. There are claims that by joining the suit, these representatives have acted treasonously against the Constitution; therefore they should not be seated, or they should be prosecuted. Others are seeking reprisals against those who supported President Trump, either by public endorsement or even by voting for him.

    Both sides seem to agree that the old saying, "Don't just sit there...do something!" is the way to go. But I'd like to propose a different course of action: creative inaction. "Don't just do something...sit there!" 

    The Taoist tradition speaks about wu wei, or "effortless action." The Tao te Ching says that the sage "... anticipates things that are difficult while they are easy, and does things that would become great while they are small. All difficult things in the world are sure to arise from a previous state in which they were easy, and all great things from one in which they were small. Therefore the sage, while he never does what is great, is able on that account to accomplish the greatest things."

    The Stoic philosophers tell us to distinguish between things that are under our control (our own opinions and actions) and those that are not under our control (everything else: body, property, reputation, vocation). They tell us to focus on what is under our control, and forget about what is not under our control.

    And the Sacred Scriptures teach the value of hesychia, or stillness.  

 Isaiah 30:15 "For thus the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, has said, "In repentance and rest you shall be saved, In quietness and trust is your strength."

Psalm 131:1 "O Lord, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty; Nor do I involve myself in great matters, Or in things too difficult for me. 2 Surely I have composed and quieted my soul; Like a weaned child rests against his mother, My soul is like a weaned child within me. 3 O Israel, hope in the LORD From this time forth and forever."

1 These. 4:11-12 "Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you; 12 so that you may behave properly toward outsiders and not be in any need."

When God delivered Israel from the hand of Pharaoh, Moses told the people, "Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the LORD which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever. 14 "The LORD will fight for you while you keep silent." (Exod. 14:13-14 NAS)

God entered the world in silence.  "For while gentle silence enveloped all things, and night in its swift course was now half gone, 15 thy all-powerful word leaped from heaven, from the royal throne, into the midst of the land that was doomed..." (Wis. 18:14-15 RSV) And Mary's response was silence: "But Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart." (Lk. 2:19 RSV)

God redeemed the world in silence. We sometimes speak of the "seven words from the Cross," but have we reflected on how little Christ spoke during those long hours on the Tree? All seven sayings, together, would take well under a minute to speak.

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So, while the country descends into frenzy and madness, let me recommend creative inaction. Be still. Listen; renounce the attempt to be understood, and try your best to understand. Pray. Love...especially those who are not like you.  Repent of deifying politics and politicians. Believers do not live in a Republic; we live in a Monarchy. We always have. We always will.